The exhausted brimler plummeted through the
empty underwater mesas, and the hammerhead followed.

The predator didn’t need to see the brimler
to know it was there, he could sense the mounting terror in the aura of his
prey as it fought against the current. All the shark needed to do was
stay below, within the familiar depths, and wait patiently for the brimler to
fall into his path. In the meantime he could feed upon the ghostly white
grouper fishes that chanced onto his route, rising occasionally to refresh his
system.

The unlikely pair danced past ridges and
chasms once vivid with multi-colored moss. These rocks and canyons now sat grey
and motionless in the dark silver light. There was nothing alive in these
caverns anymore. The hammerhead used his powerful muscles to push his
efficient form through the water, but the brimler had no such option.
Somsee’s journey over the lifeless prairies was one of desperation, witnessed
only by the empty eyes of vacant cave entrances.

The shark was now within striking distance
of his prey’s lowest tentacles. He could attack with one swish of his
powerful tail, but he hesitated, as though aware of an even more powerful
adversary than the ocean current.

The brimler knew he was exhausted. He
needed to feed. He needed to fully open his gills and take in the
much-needed oxygen. Just one deep breath would help him clear his mind,
he reasoned. If he could just get his balance and escape the current
pulling him forward. He tried opening his gills but the rushing water
plastered them back against his neck. He closed his eyes for a moment.

*****

Instantly he remembered being there again,
beside her, beside the hive. The walls of the vent towered over the two
brimlers, reaching halfway to the top of their snug chasm. The decade’s
old tear in the ocean floor had developed into a massive cone providing warmth
and nutrients and life. There was food everywhere: shrimp were crawling
up and down the vent tower; plankton were floating around him in abundance;
varied fish seemed to be lining up, ready to be held and paralyzed by his
deadly tentacles.

Liekey’s eyes were a smoldering deep
orange. Her aura glowed a contented purple. “I’m glad we’ve had this time
together,” she sung through the thick brine between them. The simple
truth of this thought delighted him.

“You know how content I’ve been as well,
just being here with you,” he sung back to her.

“I wish you didn't need
to go. Your nightmare from last night is telling you to stay with
me. It’s a warning.”

He remembered the dream about the shark and
the light. “I’m sorry I told you about it. It was just a sleep-mare,
Liekey, nothing more.” He touched her mouth and her cells softened under his
caress.

“Tell me about it again. Remind me of
your dream.”

He could feel her pulling the memory from
his mind as they hung there beside the tower, so he told her. “I dreamed I was
drowning in an air bubble so large it encased my entire body. My gills
began to bleed as I prayed for water.” He stopped. “Don’t make me
think about it, please."

“Stay here, Somsee. I won’t let you
go.”

“You know better. This vent-tower
can’t last much longer. Soon it will collapse in upon itself, and we’ll
need another home. It’s up to me to find that other home, for us…to save
all of us. If I don’t go, who will? I fear all my brothers are
cowards.”

“I’ll wait for you,” she quietly thought to
him. “Forever if necessary.”

*****

Somsee opened his eyes and he realized he
was being pulled upwards. There was food everywhere around him, also
struggling to be freed. They were all rising, rising, the heat beginning
to sear his flesh. He didn’t know it, but bubbles were beginning to burst
inside his brain as he started vomiting. He could sense a thousand
creatures screaming, begging for escape. Still, they all continued to
rise towards an ever-brightening light.

He closed both eyelids but the light was
relentless, scorching his retinas. Suddenly, he was free from the glare
in his eyes as his world became lost in total darkness. He felt his
eyelids opening and closing, but all he could envision was a complete absence
of light. It was the blackest black he had ever known. He held his
tentacle up to his face, but it was as if nothing existed now except the pain
that burned his skin.

*****

Suddenly he was home again. It was in
the time before the currents shifted and the food disappeared. It was in
the time even before Liekey. He reveled in the memory of the soft silver
glow that illuminated the bottom chasm’s colorful banks. Occasionally, he
would sense a thought pattern from a member of his clan living contentedly at
another vent many ravines away. There were times when he picked up energy
patterns left behind by brimlers long dead, echoes of those who spawned him.

The clan could sense hammerheads circling
above, but no one was concerned. They all knew the sharks would stay up
there, attacking their preferred victims in warmer water. Over countless
ages, brimlers had developed a taste that was unpleasant to most
assailants. The brimler population remained the true rulers of these
ocean depths.

Somsee remembered being with his
clot-brothers, safe and loved. Thirty-two of them, identical, floated
above the warmth and light of a fresh ocean floor vent. They swayed
together in the thick, food filled water. He opened his mouth and a soft
red light glowed from inside his cheeks. He was delighted to find prey
that helpless against his advances: he could see them, but they couldn’t see
him. He began to feed, ravenously, happily, there with his new-born
brothers over the sediment filled tear in the sea floor.

*******

Somsee was shocked back into his body, as
his back smashed against something hard and smooth.

“Hey, Emily, come see what we brought up!”

The fisherman leaned over the brimler as
its gills flew open in vain. “What the heck is it? Maybe it’s a
deformed squid of some kind.”

“Sweet Jesus, it stinks. How big do
you think it is?”

“I’d say maybe a meter. Perhaps a
little more.”

“But what is it, Jimmy? Have you ever
seen anything like it?”

"We’ve pulled up a lot of new
creatures this trip, because the Stream is all out of whack.”

“Should I pack it on ice?”

“Yeah. Doctor Lee might pay a good price
for this thing.”

*****

The brimler was at home in the deep
now. At long last… home. He could see Liekey in the distance,
floating in the soft glow of the vent. He began to glide towards her.

“Liekey! Look at me,” he thought
towards her desperately. “Look at me, Liekey! I think I’m
dying!” He saw her turn to face him, but her glance passed through
him. “Help me! Help me,” he demanded, reaching for her.

******

“Hey, I think that thing moved,” said
Emily. “Is it still alive?”

“Better step back a little,” answered the
man. “Those tentacles might be poisonous.” He picked up a small spear and
shoved the brimler, but it was dead.

“It was strange there for a minute,”
whispered Emily.

“How’s that?”

“Just a moment ago, when I thought I saw it
move, I could have sworn I heard someone scream for help.”

2012-03-09 08:42:12micheledutcher - Thanks for your kind words. As this story was coming up through the meatgrinder, I was surprised how many people wanted (more in Forum - by Michele Dutcher)2012-03-04 16:59:13Unusual setting. Nice. Could be longer and more detailed, tho... then it would be even better.

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